Central Valley water shortages not impacting tomato supply

From the Central Valley Business Times and Rabobank.

Despite water shortages in the Central Valley, tomato processors won’t face
supply shortages in 2009 but they are likely to face softer consumer demand,
especially in foodservice, according to a new Rabobank report, “U.S. Processing
Tomatoes,” released Thursday.
“The impact of California’s drought is
expected to have limited impact on processing tomato acreage this year because
processors took steps to secure supplies,” says Marieke de Rijke, vice president
of Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness and Advisory department. “In fact, we’re
seeing some farmers shift to growing processing tomatoes because of the higher
expected returns than they are receiving from crops grown for the dairy and
other sectors badly hit by the economic crisis.”
While California’s Central
Valley, which produces 95 percent of the processing tomatoes in the United
States, has entered its third year of drought, the supply of tomatoes should not
be affected, the bank’s report says.